Chocolate
Do you like eating chocolate? How often do you eat chocolate? What's your favourite chocolate flavour? Is it good to use chocolate as a gift to others? Did you often eat chocolate when you were a kid?
Vocabulary
  • Chocolate (noun) – a sweet, brown food made from roasted cocoa beans. → I love eating chocolate after dinner.
  • Protein shake (noun) – a drink made to boost protein intake, often for fitness. → He drinks a chocolate-flavored protein shake every morning.
  • Flavour (noun) – the taste of something. → Mint is my favourite ice cream flavour.
  • Bar (noun) – a solid block of something, especially food. → I bought a chocolate bar at the shop.
  • Additive (noun) – a substance added to food to improve its taste or appearance. → White chocolate contains many additives.
  • Diabetic (noun) – a person who has diabetes. → Diabetics need to watch their sugar intake.
  • Sugar-free (adjective) – without sugar. → I gave him sugar-free chocolate.
  • Accessible (adjective) – easy to get or use. → Chocolate is accessible in most supermarkets.
  • Rush (noun) – a situation in which you need to do something quickly. → If you're in a rush, chocolate is a quick gift.
  • Packed with (phrase) – full of something. → That snack is packed with sugar.
  • Cocoa (noun) – the powder from cacao beans used to make chocolate. → Cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate.
  • Dark chocolate (noun) – a type of chocolate with a high cocoa content and less sugar. → Dark chocolate is considered healthier.
  • Craving (noun) – a strong desire for something, especially food. → I had a sudden craving for chocolate.
  • Sweet tooth (noun) – a love of sweet foods. → She has a sweet tooth and eats chocolate every day.
  • Confectionery (noun) – sweets and chocolates. → The shop sells all kinds of confectionery.
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Questions and Answers
Maria: Do you like eating chocolate?

Rory: Doesn't everyone? I probably like it a bit too much, if I'm honest. My protein shakes are often chocolate flavoured and even some of the bars I eat have similar flavourings. So I think it's safe to say that I really enjoy it.

Maria: How often do you eat chocolate?

Rory: Depends on the type. If we mean something like a milk chocolate bar, then maybe, I don't know, maybe like once a week. But if it's something with a chocolate flavour, then that's a daily occurrence.

Maria: What's your favourite chocolate flavour?

Rory: I really like white chocolate, actually, though I'm told it's one of the worst for you due to all the additives in it. I quite like mint chocolate chip as well when I have ice cream. That's a good combination, at least in my opinion.

Maria: Is it good to use chocolate as gifts to others?

Rory: Well, assuming you're not giving it to a diabetic, yes. Then again, you do get sugar-free chocolate these days, so maybe that wouldn't be so bad. It's easily accessible. This is chocolate in general is easily accessible. And if you're in a rush, it should be okay, like 99% of the time.

Maria: Did you often eat chocolate when you were a kid?

Rory: Yeah, again, probably a bit too much since I used to be a large child. But it was so nice, probably because it was packed with sugar.
Discussion
Maria: Chocolate. Mmm, hot chocolate. Yum, yum, yum. Dear listener, are you a chocoholic? Like, you know, shopaholic, chocoholic, like you love chocolate. You can say that I love eating chocolate. I just like chocolate. I'm a chocoholic. And if you like everything sweet, you can say I've got a sweet tooth. My protein shakes are often chocolate-flavoured. So Rory drinks these shakes, which are chocolate-flavoured. Or, for example, you can say my porridge is chocolate-flavoured, my coffee is chocolate-flavoured. What do you have in the morning? I don't know. My fruit is chocolate-flavoured.

Rory: My fruit is chocolate-flavoured because my fruit is chocolate.

Maria: My water is chocolate-flavoured. So if you add chocolate, something becomes chocolate-flavoured because it has this chocolate flavour, taste, chocolate taste. And I have some bars. So we call these little thingies chocolate bars, like Snickers, Nuts, Twix, the other ones, like chocolate bars, with similar flavourings. And what's the difference between a flavour and flavouring?

Rory: Well, the flavour is what the actual thing tastes like, but flavouring is something that's used to make something different taste like that previous thing. It's like a cover, almost, that makes it look different or tastes different in this case.

Maria: We can say like artificial flavourings, when they add something to food or drink. And we can say that I like chocolate flavour. When the examiner asks you how often do you do something, you can say I often, usually, rarely, hardly ever, like almost never, like once a week, twice a week, every day. And you can say that it depends on the type, because there are lots of chocolate types. We can have a chocolate bar, or a milk chocolate bar, or we can have like a hot chocolate, for example, to drink. And usually like once or twice a day, or once or twice a week. Really? You have like a chocolate bar once, twice a week?

Rory: Maybe. I don't think it's a very common occurrence. No, unless the protein bars that are flavoured like chocolate count. But many people would say that doesn't count, that's a different product.

Maria: And the question is like my favourite chocolate flavour is what? White chocolate, Rory told us.

Rory: Although I realise that's the colour, but I think we all know what white chocolate tastes like.

Maria: Or I like mint chocolate.

Rory: Chocolate chip.

Maria: Yeah, mint chocolate chip. Chip is like little thingies, like…

Rory: Little chips of chocolate.

Maria: And when I have ice cream, I usually ask for some mint chocolate chips. It's a good combination. If we talk about different chocolate flavours, for example, we can have spicy chocolate, or lavender chocolate. Lavender is this, what's lavender?
Rory: What is lavender? Is that a plant that's got a particular taste, as far as I know?

Maria: An educated native speaker. Lavender, a plant that has grey-green leaves, and it's like when it blooms, it's beautiful because of these purple flowers. And it has this nice smell. Delicious. And we can say that I enjoy lavender chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, vanilla chocolate, for example, rose chocolate. They put some, you know, like petals of roses in the chocolate. Coconut chocolate. Peanut, also like different kinds of nuts. Peanut chocolate, for example, or hazelnut chocolate. Here, just a good idea is for you to remember two words, very specific words, dear listener. For example, I love lavender chocolate and hazelnut chocolate. Beautiful. Okay, so just remember two specific words for types or like flavours of chocolate. Yeah, then you can also say like, ooh, I enjoy Swiss chocolate from Switzerland.

Rory: Why is Swiss chocolate so good? Or so famous even, I should say.

Maria: Because Swiss chocolate is known for its smooth texture and creamy flavour.

Rory: Ooh, fancy.

Maria: Yeah. And this chocolate, in Switzerland, they make it with a higher percentage of milk than other types of chocolate. So they put more milk and that's why it's creamy. It's, you know, smooth. Ooh. And it's less sweet than other types of chocolate, Swiss chocolate. And you can say that I like Swiss chocolate because it has a delicate and velvety texture, dear listener. Okay, so now you're a chocolate connoisseur. You're like an expert on chocolate. Even if you hate chocolate, dear listener, just use the words.

Rory: If we ever decide to stop doing this, Maria's got a career ahead of her in chocolate connoisseuring or chocolatiering.

Maria: Yeah, you can also say that I like truffles, like chocolate balls, and I like chocolate fondue. Rory, do you say fondue?

Rory: I say fondue, but some people will say fondue and I think that will be fine too. Because as far as I'm aware, that's a French word. So the French pronunciation will also work here.

Maria: Fondue. A cheese fondue or a chocolate fondue. When we have hot chocolate and you put different, I don't know, fruits and stuff in there. Belgian chocolate, Swiss chocolate. Yeah, Belgian waffles, you know. Yum, yum, yum with chocolate.

Rory: And you can have them by themselves or in combination. So that just means together. Like mint and chocolate together.

Maria: You can give chocolate to different people as a gift. So don't say present people with chocolate. No, no, no. Give chocolate as gifts to others or just give chocolate for people's birthdays. And if a person is diabetic, so he's a diabetic. A person who has diabetes. So a disease in which the body can't control the level of sugar. We have sugar-free chocolates or sugar-free chocolate. Well, we have chocolate without sugar. We have dark chocolate, for example. Yeah, it's complicated, you know. Vegan chocolate, soy-free chocolate. I don't know. Do they have chocolate in this chocolate? You can say that if I'm in a rush and I need to give a present, I might pick chocolate, but I don't usually give any chocolates to people. Or I might give handmade chocolate, Swiss chocolate, or a box of expensive truffles. Truffles are these like chocolate balls. Chocolate balls.
Rory: Okay, you've made your point.

Maria: Yum, yum, yum.

Rory: I was hoping you would only say it the one time, but now you've discovered you can get away with it on this episode.

Maria: When I was a child, I ate chocolate probably a bit too much. So I ate a lot of chocolate. We use used to. I used to eat a lot of chocolate. I used to eat chocolate every day. And we know that Rory was a large child. So Rory was fat as a child.

Rory: I was a fat child. Let's face facts.

Maria: Yeah. He was really big. So he ate a lot of chocolate. And I ate chocolate which was packed with sugar. So lots of sugar, lots of chocolate. Yum, yum, yum.

Rory: Well, it might be yummy, but it's bad for you.

Maria: Well, yeah, especially chocolate with sugar. But these days you can get sugar-free chocolate, chocolate without chocolate. I don't know. What can't we get these days? And to wrap it up, we have a chocolate joke. Rory, are you ready for a chocolate joke?

Rory: Do I have a choice but to be ready?

Maria: No, no, no. You don't. It's a rhetorical question. You just say, of course, Maria, shoot. And Rory, the joke has a question. So I read out the question. You keep silent. So you don't have to answer it. Okay?

Rory: I love it!

Maria: Yeah. Instructions and the listener also kind of like you think about the question and then you listen for the answer. So Rory, do you answer the question in the joke? Yes or no?

Rory: No, I don't answer the question.

Maria: Yeah. Rory, do you laugh at the end of the joke?

Rory: If it's funny, yes.

Maria: Right. Okay. So when we talk about sweet products, we call them sweets or candies. So a candy is something sweet. So the joke is, what kind of candy is never on time? What kind of candy is never on time? Chocolate. Did you get it, dear listener? Chocolate. So late to be late. And chocolate has this late at the very end. But we say like chocolate or chocolate, chocolate. So what kind of candy is never on time? So what kind of candy is always late? And we say chocolate. Rory, did you laugh? I didn't hear your laughter.

Rory: I laughed internally.

Maria: Thank you very much for listening. Bye!

Rory: Bye.
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